


Shockwave

by Joracwyn



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Episode: s04e05 Divide and Conquer, F/M, Sam and Jack Ship Day 2020 (Stargate)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:26:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25555795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joracwyn/pseuds/Joracwyn
Summary: How many times can they face death together before something gives?For Ship Day 2020
Relationships: Samantha "Sam" Carter/Jack O'Neill
Comments: 15
Kudos: 100





	Shockwave

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: 'Empty'
> 
> Beta'd by the wonderful [NiceHatGeorgia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NiceHatGeorgia/pseuds/NiceHatGeorgia), who very kindly fitted this into her busy schedule at short notice.

Every time she looks at him now, his words reverberate through her head and heart.

_"I care about her. A lot more than I'm supposed to."_

She tries not to catch his eye, and if it looks like she's avoiding him, well, that's as good an impression to give as any other. 

At this moment, she keeps her gaze firmly fixed on the frequency analyser in her hand while she addresses him. 

"Colonel, these energy readings are still fluctuating."

He sidles closer and cranes his neck to peer at the device. The numbers on the screen increase. 

"What does that mean, Major?" 

For his part, he's being carefully formal in all his interactions with her, rebuilding all the boundary walls. 

He takes a few steps away and the energy drops off. "Um, I'm not really sure, sir."

It's only been a week since _that_ day, and this artificial distance they're forcing themselves to create is scrambling her focus worse than any closeness they'd ever allowed themselves. 

"Well, let me know when you are sure, Carter. I'm going to check on Teal'c."

Without a backwards glance, he walks out of the circle of tall, neatly squared-off stones that Sam and Daniel are studying. 

Sam sighs and scrubs a hand through her hair. Daniel pauses his note-taking. 

"Are you sure everything's OK?" He’s repeated this so often over the last few days that even he sounds tired of saying it.

Her answer comes by rote. "I'm sure." 

"It's only been a week since Martouf and—" 

"Really, Daniel, I'm _fine_."

She offers him a smile to soften the snap in her reply, which he seems to accept. 

As he turns back to his notes, she tries to collect her thoughts. She's not fine. She's still reeling from the events of that day. Every blow sent her staggering, one after another after another, each more powerful than the one before. The attack on Per'sus, the suicide of Lieutenant Astor, finding out that she and the colonel were za'tarcs, realising why they _weren't_ , Colonel O'Neill's confession, Martouf's attack and then his death at her hands…

Martouf, Major Graham and Lieutenant Astor she could grieve for. She wasn't really a za'tarc and neither was the colonel, so that part she could at least try to forget. But, the rest… 

_"I didn't leave, because I'd have rather died myself than lose Carter."_

Colonel O’Neill should never have been forced to tell her how he felt. It was obvious that he'd tried to do everything in his power to hide or deny those feelings. She felt honor-bound to offer to leave his secret in the room, and pretend she had never heard his confession. After all, she hadn't had to confess in return. 

Sure, she'd lied to the za'tarc detector. But all she had hidden from the machine was that she had known why he hadn't left her on Apophis' ship. What she feels for him never formed part of the interrogation. 

Ever since Edora she's known that her feelings for him weren't strictly permissable. But it's only in the last week that she's come to terms with the knowledge that he… that he…

That he means everything to her.

It's knowledge that she has every intention of keeping to herself. He made it pretty clear that this wasn't a subject he wanted to discuss: from that, she's inferred that he's not interested in taking things any further. So she'll tuck her own feelings away. He doesn't need to know that he has only to say one word and she'd pack it all in, for him. 

At the sound of his voice over the radio, she jumps. She’d almost forgotten she was on an uninhabited planet, billions of lightyears from Earth; in her mind’s eye she was back in the observation room at the SGC.

"Carter, Daniel, we may not be alone here. Teal'c has seen what he thinks are tracks."

"Copy that, sir." Her hand shakes a little as she releases the radio and she gives herself a mental slap.

_Focus, Sam._

"Are you sure, Teal'c?" Daniel queries, looking around the ring of stones and the remains of the temple that housed the monument. "We've seen nothing to suggest there have been people here for hundreds of years."

Then Teal'c's voice, steady and sure, "I am certain, Daniel Jackson."

Sam pockets the frequency analyser and readies her weapon. She makes a quiet circuit of the ruins, inspecting the gaps between the trees, the shadows behind every pile of rubble. All is still. When she returns to the circle of stones, Daniel holsters his side arm. 

"Guess Teal'c was mistaken," Daniel shrugs. 

Sam goes back to studying the stones. Each one has a panel of a glass-like substance set into it, surrounded by carvings, which Daniel thinks are words. Beneath the slightly-frosted surface, patches of colour are visible, as if there are crystals inside, but she's found no way to open a panel to investigate. Energy is being generated within each panel, but she can’t find a pattern to the readings. She checks them again. 

"Back down to almost nothing," she mutters. 

"What?" 

"Sorry, I was just talking to myself. Have you managed to decipher the language yet?" 

"Nope,” Daniel sighs.

"I can't work out why the energy builds and then dissipates."

“Maybe it’s broken.”

“Well, if I could just get into one of these panels, maybe I'd be able to find out.”

He gives her a sympathetic smile, then squints again at the carvings, running his fingers over the pitted surface of the stone. "What do you think the device is?" 

"Your guess is as good as mine." 

"Some kind of transporter?" 

"Like a ring platform? Maybe.” Sam kicks at the ground. “Have we investigated what's under the grass?" 

Daniel pulls his trowel from his pack, excited at the excuse to do some digging. "Let's see, shall we?" 

When the colonel and Teal'c return, she's exchanged the frequency analyser for a shovel and is helping Daniel excavate a narrow trench from the centre of the circle to one of the stones. 

"Nice latrine, but isn't it a bit exposed?" 

"Very funny, Jack,” Daniel says over his shoulder, still scraping away at the side of the trench.

"What are you looking for?"

Sam stretches out her back, grimacing. "A ring platform, sir. But it looks like this space is empty."

"Is it Goa'uld technology?"

"I don't think so. It might be crystal-based, but it looks very different."

He rubs his jaw and squints up at the sun, and Sam knows what he’s going to say next. "OK, kids, how much longer do you need?” 

Yup, she was right. She shares a speculative look with Daniel and gives a tiny shrug. 

"It depends, Jack,” Daniel answers for them both. “If you want thorough, we'd need at least another day. If you want quick, we can be another couple of hours—"

Teal'c shouts, "O'Neill!" as a fist-sized rock comes hurtling between two stones and bounces off the turf. Sam ducks as it whistles over her head. 

"—or we can be done now," Daniel finishes, dropping his trowel and arming himself. 

"Grab what you can and get back to the gate!" Jack orders, as he and Teal'c position themselves to cover the rest of the team. 

Daniel slings his trowel and notebook into his pack. "Good to go!" 

With staccato gestures, Colonel O'Neill sends Teal'c to take point. 

"Wait— I'm—" Sam says, frantically collecting the scattered pieces of equipment from around the circular space. She can't believe she's been so careless.

The colonel takes one look at her and mutters a curse as another rock ricochets off a stone. There's a low rumbling on the edge of their hearing now, growing louder. 

Teal’c scans the surrounding area and ducks back behind the stone. "O'Neill! We must leave now!" 

"Daniel, Teal'c, get to the gate,” Colonel O’Neill says, as he throws Sam her tool roll. “We'll be right behind you."

Daniel starts to protest but Teal'c hustles him out of the temple ruins and back up the track towards the stargate. 

"Come on, Carter, time to go."

Colonel O'Neill is right behind her, his voice tight, but not with anger. Sam's fingers close on the frequency analyser and habit makes her glance at the readings: the energy in the stone ring has spiked, higher than ever. She stuffs the device into her vest pocket and readies her weapon. 

"Let's go."

The temple lies about three kilometres away from the stargate and it’s uphill all the way back. They start the journey at a steady run, keeping constant watch, but they still can’t see who has been flinging the stones. There’s patchy tree cover all around, and the aliens — whatever they are — must be pretty adept at camouflage.

When they’ve gone about two hundred metres, Sam catches movement between the trees and unconsciously she slows her pace, trying to see what’s there. The colonel catches her arm.

“Carter, keep moving!”

She runs a few more paces, but then she gasps and stumbles as figures seem to pour from the undergrowth. They’re humanoid, but small, only about four-and-a-half feet tall, with powerful shoulders and long arms, and they’re holding curved weapons which look like cricket bats, but longer.

The colonel sees them at the same moment. “Let’s go!” he yells, and they set off at a sprint, but the hordes of aliens suddenly swarm towards them, moving faster than Sam would have thought possible on such short legs. She risks a glance behind them. There are hundreds more of the creatures streaming towards them, a tide of bodies that flows around the temple ruins, skirting the stones as if they’ve been diverted by a forcefield.

The colonel skids to a stop and Sam looks forward again. Their path is completely blocked, and now the figures aren’t in motion, they’ve started fitting rocks into depressions in the end of their weapons. 

Now they know how they could manage to catapult those stones so far and so fast.

As the first stones come whirling through the air, Sam aims at the stones rather than the people, blasting them into dust. After all, she’s the trespasser here. The colonel has no such compunction, and lays waste to the front ranks of aliens. They fall back a few paces, but only for a few seconds. Then the roar of their bestial voices rises again, louder and fiercer, and they take aim.

Sam and the colonel are spinning on the spot, covering each other, but it’s only a matter of time before one of them’s hit. There’s not even been a chance to radio for backup.

Then a rock crunches into the side of Sam’s knee and a scream bursts from her throat as the joint gives way. The colonel grabs her as she collapses and throws an arm over their heads.

"Teal'c!" he finally managed to yell into the radio, as he fires a volley of rounds at the nearest creatures, "We could use some backup here!" 

Daniel reply is almost lost beneath the sound of staff weapon blasts. "We were just about to say the same thing, Jack!" 

"Carter's injured!" 

There's no reply. Sam scrambles to her feet, gritting her teeth against the agony in her knee. She fires in an arc behind them, keeping the aliens from sneaking up to their rear. She notices the ranks of creatures are thinner there; the aliens have been skirting their position to get ahead of them. 

"Sir!" she shouts.

The colonel is busy ploughing up the ground with bullets. "Carter?" 

"The ruins!"

"What about them?"

"It's more defensible than here, sir!" 

He throws a glance behind him. "Any port in a storm, Major. Let's go!" 

He slings one arm around her waist and they throw themselves back downhill as fast as she can manage, the colonel firing wildly with his one free hand.

As they slip between the stones, a cascade of cold washes over Sam, like she’s stepped through a waterfall. She shivers as she drops down behind a massive standing stone. The aliens are following them, pouring down the hillside in a single mass.

A tremor of fear passes through her, and she shivers again as her hands shift their grip on her weapon. She glances at the colonel, only to find that he’s looking straight at her, with the same hopeless look on his face she saw not that long ago, on Apophis’ ship, on the other side of a forceshield.

_Is this going to be our last stand? Taken out by ancient hominids throwing rocks?_

They say nothing.

It’s not long before they're completely surrounded. The aliens mill around the ruins; the rubble and the standing stones provide some cover, but they can’t defend against a three-sixty barrage of rocks. Eventually, both of them are forced, inch by reluctant inch, back into the center of the space, firing volleys between the stones. It may be more defensible than the open, but they’ve essentially corralled themselves. 

She hopes Daniel and Teal'c are faring better. 

Sam's back touches the colonel's and she leans into it against the kick of her weapon.

_As long as he's watching my back, I'm going to be OK._

_Even if we're about to die._

The quick bursts of gunfire from two weapons echo unceasingly around the ring of stones, punctuated by the ping and thud of rocks, and with the ever-present rumble of the creatures' howls of protest and pain. The alien figures circle the ruins, but never come within one long arm's reach of the stones. 

Then, without warning, the gunfire stops. 

Sam's ears are ringing, but she can still hear the tiny _click, click, click_ of the trigger falling on an empty clip. 

"I'm out of ammo!" she cries into the deafening hush. 

"Me too," he replies, and she can hear the same note of desperation in his voice that had been in hers. 

Even the cries of the alien hordes are checked as they recoil in surprise. She unholsters her zat. It’s no good against the rocks, but it works against the figures firing them.

"This is the second time recently I've found myself facing death with you, Carter," are the colonel’s next, unexpected words. 

"I know, sir," Sam says, pushing away the image of him battering at the keypad on Apophis’ ship.

"I've been thinking a lot about that,” he continues.

On the edge of her vision, Sam sees an alien raise his weapon. As he fires, so does she. He falls, twitching, surrounded by the crackle of the zat charge, and she ducks as the rock zips over her head. 

"I don't think this is really the time for this conversation, sir."

His voice is tight, like it was earlier, and he speaks very fast. "Carter, this is exactly the right time for this conversation. If we're going down now, which looks pretty likely, I just need to do one thing."

"What's that?" 

He spins her roughly, their weapons tangling between them. His hands grasp her face, and his lips crash against hers.

Her zat falls from her fingers and she wraps her hands around his neck, feeling the heat of his skin and the dust from exploding rocks under her palms. 

It wasn’t the way she thought she’d die, but with his lips against hers, even with the taste of gunpowder and fear mingling with the taste of him, she doesn't regret it.

She surrenders herself to fate, in the embrace of the man she’d willingly die for.

The roar from the aliens rises in a deafening crescendo. Her skin tingles with static. She feels a wave of cold, then one of burning heat, and then the air is knocked from her lungs as the world explodes. 

* * *

Her ears are ringing like a cartoon anvil has fallen on her head. She feels like she's been crushed by one, but that might be because Colonel O'Neill is lying on top of her. She wiggles an arm free and he scrambles off her, blinking and rubbing at his ears. 

She pushes up off the ground, but pain shoots through her knee and she collapses again, a whimper escaping her lips. Immediately, Jack puts a steadying hand under her elbow and helps her to her feet. 

They survey the scene, wide-eyed. 

The stones and trees and vegetation are untouched, but every living thing is laid out on the ground, unmoving. Their feet all point towards the stone circle; she and the colonel had been at the epicenter of whatever it was that had bowled everyone over. 

"Are they dead?" To Sam, her voice sounds very distant. She rubs her ears. 

"I don't know," the colonel replies. "But I don't want to stick around to find out." Then he raises a hand to his radio. "Come in, Daniel." 

There's no reply. 

"Teal'c, do you copy?" 

Nothing. 

Trying to ignore the way her stomach is twisting, Sam takes a few experimental steps, and winces as her knee threatens to buckle under her. She's not going to be running any time soon. So with her arm over the colonel's shoulders and his around her waist, they pick their way over the ring of bodies around the ruins and begin the long walk to the stargate. 

Sam bites her lip. "Sir—" 

She hesitates. It feels strange to call him 'sir' right now. After that kiss, anyway. But she decides that it's something she'll worry about later. 

"—do you think Daniel and Teal'c are OK?" 

His stony silence speaks for itself. 

She wants to change the subject, but there's not a lot to settle on. "So…" She flicks a sideways look at his face. "I guess it left the room, huh?" 

His jaw relaxes a fraction, and his lips twitch. "That was some exit."

She laughs too, a breathy giggle of nervousness and bafflement. She takes another look at him, only to find herself the subject of his scrutiny. She can feel herself blushing. 

"Are you OK with that?" he asks, quietly. 

It's what he asked her in the observation room, but then the lie came easily. Now, fear and pain and shock have sapped whatever emotional strength she had. She can't lie to him again. 

"I didn't really want to leave it in there anyway." She sighs. "I thought it was what you needed to hear."

His only answer is a speculative "Huh."

Just as she's about to ask what they're going to do now, he says, "I thought it was what you wanted." 

She chooses her words carefully. "What I _want_ never mattered. I'm not allowed to want it."

"Huh," he says again, this time understanding. 

"So, what next?"

"I'll think of something, Carter."

It's a slow climb back up the hill. They pass the scene of their earlier stand, and Sam averts her eyes from the bullet-ridden, blood-smeared alien bodies. Further on, they find more bodies, this time burnt instead of bloody. At least Teal'c put up a fight. 

Just over the next rise, she stops. "Oh my god."

There ahead of them is a group of the indigenous people, prone on the dirt just as the ones at the stone circle had been. And in the centre of the mass of figures are Daniel and Teal'c. 

Jack pulls his arm away from Sam and runs to the lifeless bodies of his teammates, heaving aside the aliens who have collapsed on top of them. Then he stills, his fingers on Daniel's neck, checking for a pulse. 

Sam wants to ask if they're alive, but the words stick in her throat. Then, when the colonel sits back on his heels and starts slapping Daniel's face, she almost laughs out loud in relief. She watches as the colonel reaches over and thumps Teal'c's arm.

The big guy stirs. "O'Neill?" 

Sam limps forward as Colonel O'Neill replies, "Wakey wakey, sleepyheads. Time to go!" He hauls Daniel to a sitting position. 

"What was that?" Daniel asks, adjusting his glasses and looking around at the aliens. 

"The stone circle is some kind of weapon."

"Really?" Daniel is instantly alert. 

"Yeah, but if it only knocked you out, then I'm guessing these guys are also unconscious and it's only a matter of time before they wake up. So let's get the hell out of here."

"Right." 

The colonel helps Daniel up and then returns to Sam's side. He gives her a small smile as he slides his arm around her waist again. 

"You are injured, Major Carter," Teal'c says, concerned. 

"Yeah," she grimaces, as they set off. "Rock... Knee…"

"I know how that goes," the colonel says in a low voice. "You're probably going to be out of action for a while. I'm sorry."

"I could cope with sitting behind a desk," she smiles. 

"Really?" 

"It's been an intense few months—" 

"—years," the colonel corrects. 

Sam laughs. "I guess."

She glances behind them. "Ah, sir?" 

He lifts an eyebrow at her. "Yes, Major?" 

"They're waking up."

He turns his head. The pile of aliens are shifting, some scrambling to their feet, barking to each other. 

"Daniel, some help here?" The colonel calls ahead. "We have to hurry." 

Daniel grasps the other side of Sam's waist and they pick up the pace, Sam hopping awkwardly between the two men's running feet. 

From behind them, they can hear the barks and roars grow louder and more urgent as the creatures spot their retreat. 

"Teal'c, cover us!" Colonel O'Neill yells, as he and Daniel lift Sam completely off her feet, perfectly in step. 

Teal'c allows them to pass. Sam hears him fire off a couple of shots and glances behind to see a few tree branches fall across the path. They have to keep moving: the aliens can't load and fire while they're running. And hopefully, the larger force down by the stone circle won't be following them. 

Another five hundred metres and they can see the DHD.

The colonel calls over Sam's head, "Daniel, dial it up!" 

Daniel takes his arm from Sam's waist and she drops onto her damaged knee. She stifles a scream; the colonel tightens his hold on her. 

As Daniel sprints forward Teal'c lets off more staff blasts. 

"They are gaining on us, O'Neill," he calls. 

"They're tiny," the colonel mutters. "How'd they move so fast?" 

Ahead, the chevrons begin to light up. When the vortex fountains outwards there is a deafening howl of protest from the aliens, followed by more blasts from Teal'c. Sam's heart feels like it's going to jump out of her chest. They've cheated death once today — can they do it again? Because there's a whole conversation that she needs to have with the man half-carrying her along, and she can't let rock-slinging aliens stop her. 

Daniel covers them from the DHD, but at a gesture from the colonel he dives for the gate. Sam can hear Teal'c almost on their heels, his staff raining continuous fire down on the creatures, as she and Colonel O'Neill mount the steps to the stargate. 

Rocks strike at the ground, the gate, the event horizon as they throw themselves through, stumbling as they exit, Teal'c right behind them. 

Then the colonel shouts in pain and pitches forward, taking her with him, to land hard, face first, on the metal grille. 

"Sonofabitch!" he groans.

For the moment, Sam isn't aware of her own injury. "Colonel, what happened?" 

"Shot to the kidney," he wheezes. Then he rolls over and reaches out for her. "What about you? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to take you down with me."

She smiles and puts her hand over his. "Well, considering that half an hour ago I thought I was going to die, yeah, I feel great."

A shadow seems to pass across his eyes. It's the same look as the one he wore in front of the za'tarc detector when he'd admitted that he couldn't save her. 

Teal'c brushes past them, and a moment later, Sam hears his calm voice explain their sudden return to General Hammond. 

She tries to make a joke of it. "It never gets old, does it, sir?"

"Maybe not for you, Carter," he says, his face hardening. "I'm done."

"Done with what?"

"Feeling like I'm about to watch you die."

He rises to his feet, drawing her carefully up beside him, but he doesn't head down the ramp. Instead, he stands in front of her, his hands still on her arms. 

"Sir?" 

"Call me Jack," he smiles, then he lifts his head, raising his voice. "General?"

Hammond looks up, and Teal'c steps aside. 

"Yes, Colonel?"

Colonel O'Neill waves a finger at the general. "This was one too many times. I resign. You got that?"

Sam's mouth drops open. Resign? 

General Hammond has got that long-suffering look on his face. "Colonel?"

Jack looks up at the security camera. 

"I resign!" he yells. "There. It's on record."

Daniel opens his mouth, but Teal'c puts a hand on his shoulder and he shuts it again. 

"So, Carter," Jack says, turning back to her. His voice is light, belying the weight of his gaze, "how do you feel about doing something reckless?" 

Sam's mouth is suddenly dry. "How reckless are we talking?" 

"Colonel? Major?" General Hammond calls, but Jack ignores him and carries on speaking with the same swift urgency he'd used in the stone circle. 

"Formal reprimand kind of reckless. Could-cost-you-a-promotion kind of reckless."

"Screw promotion," she says, carelessly. "Do you think they'd fire me?" 

General Hammond's voice has a dangerous edge to it. "Colonel O'Neill, I order you to explain—" but Jack is focused entirely on Sam. 

"Over my dead body will they fire you." 

"If you die on me I will kill you myself, Jack," she says, and he smiles at her ferocity. "What are you planning?" 

He lifts his hands to her face in response and she licks her lips, knowing exactly what it is he's going to do. He leans towards her. "I was thinking of doing…" Then he pulls back, a crooked smile on his lips. "Should we warn them to close the blast doors?"

She thinks back to that stone circle. She remembers the electrical charge in the air, the shockwave that seemed to emanate from the centre of their being. 

"I don't think that was us, Jack."

"No, it was absolutely us, Sam," he murmurs, as he lifts her face to his. 

The air seems to explode with sound: the whistles and heckles of the guards; the cheering and applause from the technicians; Daniel's confused, "Ah, guys…?" And above it all, General Hammond's furious "Will someone _please_ explain what is going on?" 

There's definitely no leaving _this_ in the room. 


End file.
